Amuse, a digital music distributor, argues that the distributor an artist chooses now matters as much as price and payout terms, because streaming services increasingly judge the source of uploads. The argument follows a September 2026 lawsuit in a United States federal court brought by Universal Music Group (UMG).
Why the distributor matters#
Music released by an artist is delivered through a distributor and travels the same route as every other track that distributor handles. Streaming services deal with the distributor rather than with the individual artist, so their enforcement tools are aimed at the distributor and, in effect, everyone who uses it.
Amuse says the measures streaming services use are becoming more sophisticated. When fees, additional scrutiny or takedown sweeps are applied to a distributor, the effects are not limited to bad actors. Amuse says these steps can lead to slower releases, legitimate tracks pulled in bulk and support queues that become overwhelmed. It notes that none of these measures target artists directly.
The lawsuit and its aftermath#
According to UMG’s complaint, a major open distributor delivered nearly 12 million tracks to one streaming service over six months, more than half of everything that service received in that period. The complaint also cites a single account that released 4,562 tracks in 12 months. These are allegations in an active case, and the distributor disputes them.
The distributor has confirmed that it removed recordings in response to UMG’s claims, and says only a very small number were affected. Independent artists have publicly said that original songs were removed, in one case an album that had been live for years, without warning.
Reinstatement through the counter-notice process takes at least 10 business days, and streaming services can decline to restore the music.
Rise of AI-generated uploads#
Deezer said 44% of its daily uploads were fully generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in April 2026. By July, that share had passed 50%, with a peak monthly average of around 90,000 AI tracks a day.
Amuse notes that making a track now costs almost nothing, but delivering it still has to go through a distributor.
How Amuse describes its standards#
Amuse describes itself as an open, self-service digital music distributor and Artist and Label Services company. It says it has grown into a top three international distributor by release volume and that half a million artists and labels use its platform.
Amuse also runs an invite-only Services division, which it says has worked with songs that have reached a billion streams and with tastemaking acts. The company says this division gives it a strong incentive to run a clean platform, and that open does not mean unchecked.
Giorgio D’Ambrosio, Amuse’s chief executive officer (CEO), said:
“Low barriers to entry are not the same as no quality control.”
Based on its own platform data, Amuse estimates that streaming services could have been spared at least 1 million spam tracks over the three months leading up to October 2026 if other large open distributors had applied similar filtering. Amuse says this is its own extrapolation, not an audited industry figure. It adds that including the daily monitoring and combating of fraudulent content and copyright infringement its team manages would make the number higher.
- Universal Music Group’s complaint: nearly 12 million tracks delivered to one streaming service over six months
- Single account cited in the complaint: 4,562 tracks in 12 months
- Counter-notice reinstatement: at least 10 business days
- Deezer AI uploads: 44% of daily uploads in April 2026, above 50% by July
- Amuse estimate: at least 1 million spam tracks spared over three months to October 2026
- Amuse scale: half a million artists and labels, more than 400 artists and labels through Artist and Label Services
Business model and what artists should check#
Amuse argues that a distributor’s revenue model shows how it is likely to behave. It says a distributor earning mostly from subscriptions has an incentive to admit anyone who pays, whatever they upload.
Amuse says most of its revenue comes from supporting growing artists and labels through licensing partnerships, not subscription volume. Its self-service platform is also where it finds future partners, and it works with more than 400 artists and labels through Artist and Label Services.
Amuse acknowledges that no platform operating at scale is immune to bad actors, and that content will occasionally slip through. For artists and rights holders, the company says a cleaner pipeline gives streaming services less reason to treat its deliveries with suspicion. It adds that this does not guarantee anything about streams, but lowers the odds that another party’s behavior becomes an artist’s problem.
Amuse suggests artists ask a different question before uploading: not “Can this distributor get my music on Spotify?” but “Will Spotify trust what this distributor sends?”
